Tuesday, 27 November 2012

I've got minor changes happening with the brewing system. I recently changed the kitchen up a bit, removing a table which was too large and replacing it with a small kitchen island with breakfast bar for two people. This gives me a lot more worktop and generally more space in the kitchen, but does somewhat scupper the brewing, as I used to put fermenters on the table whilst the yeast did it's thing. The solution? I'm going to move the fermenting upstairs to the 'brewing room' - a tiny room in which I store my grain and bottles, etc.

This has some benefits - keep the door closed and I should be able to keep the room warm during the winter months as there is a radiator in there. It also has some downsides - I don't much fancy having to lug full fermenters up the stairs from the kitchen. For this reason I have bought a set of 8 10 litre plastic (food safe, naturally) jerrycans that I can use for wort transfer. I was never completely satisfied with the chilling process as it takes ages, I don't have a tap connector for the chiller hose that fits properly, so we waste a lot of water. So I shall be using the no-chill method, as popularised by the Aussies. This may also allow me to batch up wort in mad production sessions and then just dump it in fermenters as they come free.